Mohandas Gandhi

Context

Timeline

People

Aga Khan III -
(1877-1957) Hereditary ruler of the Muslim Ismaili sect
and general Muslim leader. Born into great power and wealth, the
Aga Khan supported the British in India, and founded the All-India
Muslim League in 1906.

Winston Churchill -
Prime Minister of England during World War II, and
an obdurate foe of Indian independence

Karamchand Gandhi -
Gandhi's father, and a local politician. When Gandhi's
family sent him to England after Karamchand's death, it was with
the hope that he would follow in his father's footsteps.

G.K. Gokhale -
A
great Indian politician at the turn of the century, who befriended
Gandhi

Muhammed Ali Jinnah -
Head of the Muslim League, and founder of Pakistan.
He successfully demanded partition of India into Muslim and Hindu
countries, an idea to which Gandhi was fundamentally opposed.

Kasturbai -
Gandhi's wife. They were married at the age of thirteen.

Lord Mountbatten -
The last Viceroy of India, he presided over the partition
of the subcontinent.

Jawaharlal Nehru -
An Indian nationalist leader and friend to Gandhi,
he became the first Prime Minister of India.

Motilal Nehru -
A leader in the Indian National Congress and Gandhi's
ally, he was the father of Jawaharlal Nehru.

Putlibai -
Gandhi's mother. She died while he was in England.

Raychandra -
A
Jain friend of Gandhi's, with whom he corresponded on matters of
religion in the 1890s

Jan Smuts -
The
Afrikaner President of the Transvaal, and Gandhi's opponent in his
struggle against discrimination

Leo Tolstoy -
The
Russian author whose works on pacifism had a profound effect on
Gandhi

Terms

Ashram -
· An Indian word for a religiously-oriented, communal
farm

Bhagavad-Gita -
· One of the sacred texts of Hinduism, this long poem
helped shape Gandhi's personal philosophy.

Boer -
· Descendants of the Dutch settlers of South Africa,
they struggled with the British for dominance of the region.

Bombay -
· The great port of western India

Brahmacharya -
· The renunciation of sex by a male Hindu. Gandhi committed himself
to Brahmacharya, after some struggle, in 1906.

British Empire -
· The vast collection of British-ruled territories that
included, at Gandhi's birth, all of India.

Caste -
· A caste is a social level or class. In Hindu India,
the caste system is especially intricate and influential; under
this system, a person is born into a specific caste and may never
leave it. The castes span a wide range, the highest being the
Brahmin caste, the lowest being the untouchables.

Delhi -
· The capital of India under the Raj

East India Company -
· The British trading company that dominated India in
the 18th century.

Hartal -
· In Indian tradition, this is a day of fasting, prayer,
and abstention from work.

Hindu -
· The complex, polytheistic majority religion of India

Indian National Congress -
· An organization of well-educated Indians, founded in
1885, that fell under Gandhi's leadership and pushed for Indian independence

Jain -
· A reform movement in Hinduism that emphasized the sacredness of
all life, and greatly influenced Gandhi.

Mahatma -
· A word meaning "great soul" that was applied to Gandhi

Muslim -
· A member of the monotheistic religion Islam. Muslims
have long been the largest religious minority in India.

Natal -
· A province of British-ruled South Africa

Natal Indian Congress -
· Founded by Gandhi, this organization lobbied for Indian
rights in South Africa.

Phoenix Settlement -
· Gandhi's communal farm in South Africa

Raj -
· The British term for their dominions in India

Satyagraha -
· Literally, "soul-force." It was the term given to
Gandhi's strategy of nonviolent resistance to oppression

Satyagraha ashram -
· The name given to Gandhi's ashram in
India.

Transvaal -
· A Boer republic in South Africa, ruled by the British
after the Boer War

Unto This Last -
· Written by a British author named John Ruskin, this
book convinced Gandhi of the virtues of physical labor.

Untouchables -
· The shunned lowest caste, they were embraced by Gandhi.

Viceroy of India -
· The British-appointed ruler of India

Events

Amritsar Massacre -
· The 1919 slaughter of Indian protesters by British
troops that sparked outrage around the world

Boer War -
· The struggle (1899-1901) between Britain and the Boer republics,
ending in British control of South Africa.

Government of India Act -
· Passed by the British Parliament in 1935, it paved
the way for Indian independence.

Rowlatt Act -
· Passed after World War I, it cracked down on civil
liberties in India, and led Gandhi toward rebellion.

The Salt March -
· Gandhi's march to the sea, in spring 1930, to protest
the British government's salt monopoly.